Posted on 12/11/2006 2:33:11 PM PST by jdm
MANCHESTER, N.H. – With standing room crowds chanting for the star to show, Sunday's Democratic fundraiser could have been a rock concert. But it was only Sen. Barack Obama's first visit to the nation's first primary state.
If Senator Obama should jump into the Democratic presidential primary, where he is now ranked just behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in recent polls, Democrats in the land of retail politics wonder if there's a living room big enough to hold the throngs who'd come to hear him.
"Right now, he's a rock star. Getting 1,500 people out on a Sunday afternoon ... says something different is going on here," says Jim Craig, former Democratic leader in the New Hampshire House.
So what's driving Obama-mania?
It isn't a single set of issues such as the war or the economy. Rather, the attraction seems to be a mix of Obama's own compelling personal narrative and many voters' desire for a less caustic brand of politics.
"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of grace," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Obama, Illinois' junior senator, exemplifies the hope that there's some way to triumph over the intense polarization of American politics, he adds.
A barely known state lawmaker and community organizer in Chicago, Obama shot to superstar status after an electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic national convention in Boston. With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, he embodies two racial cultures deeply at odds in American history.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
My guess is that "Obama Mania" is being driven by Democrat political operatives - aided by their handmaidens in the news media.
Pome be good
You be bad
One thing driving Obama-mania is the refusal of the enemedia to report his record. I found the following description of it on a blog:
______________________________________________________
I have never understood the infatuation with Barack Obama. People treat him as if he is something different than your run-of-the-mill liberal (or progressive, if you prefer that term) because he speaks in broad language and uses platitudes about red states and God...
... The only problem is that his talk and his walk don't match up.
Here's some points from his record, and you tell me if this strikes you as a particularly "purple" politician:
- Opposed the Defense of Marriage Act; would work to repeal it in the U.S. Senate; would not vote for any legislation that would restrict the ability of gays and lesbians to marry.
- Opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act four times in Illinois. A similar bill passed the U.S. Senate 98-0. The Born Alive bill would have prohibited a baby from being born alive but left to die according to the mother's wishes. Obama inexplicably opposed this bill not once, twice, or three times, but four times.
- Obama took almost $90,000 in bundled contributions from the Council for a Livable World. The council is a well-known anti-defense organization.
- Obama puts rigid ideology before what's best for the people of Illinois, and presumably he would do that as President as well. He has on several occasions made public his opposition to the NAFTA trade agreement and his belief that it must be negotiated. All the while thanks to NAFTA, Illinois exports $1.3 billion in agricultural goods to Canada.
- Obama refused to vote for a bill in the Illinois State Senate that would have increased penalties for drug traffickers.
- Obama voted against a bill that would have delivered the death penalty to gang members who murder first responders.
- Finally, just in case you thought it couldn't get any worse, Obama was the only member of the Illinois State Senate to vote against a bill that prohibited early release for sexual predators.
So whose side is Barack Obama on? Apparently it's drug traffickers, gang members, sexual predators, abortion activists, and rigid left-wing ideologues. Is this what you call a "purple politician"? If so, opt me out.
:)
White guys in media board rooms creating their next meal ticket.
The media is suffering again from ESS. Empty Suit Syndrome.
venti, half-caff, no foam, just like my men
Right now I smell CNN, [p]MSNBX et al's overlords scheming a race war with Mrs. Clinton our savior. Speculation.
Spit Mountain Dew all over the monitor on that. Good one!
Great gravy, man! You may be right!
The difference with Hussein Obama is that he can actually speak English.
AMEN!!!
Nancee
Donovan McNabb is out for the season.
Is this a repeat of the Holland Tulip Bulb Mania?
You know, that's what I was thinking too. It's almost unnatural. More than creepy. Blind belief.
they are just trying to make Hillary look like the "come back kid" nothing more and in the process their trying to "boost" his profile and stature... so of like what they did with howdy doodie dean... nobody knew who he was before the election now hes a national symbolic loon.
He's not a decendent of slavery and he's half-white.
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